100 Business Days Out: Day 85 - Home Lunch

It is our week of venturing out. Today, Patti, Louie and I took the ferry over to Block Island to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Jerry and Jenny Noonan. The Noonans, friends since our days at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo in the 80's, have been summering out on Block Island for nearly 20 years now and a few years ago moved to a spectacular home on the southeast side of the Island. The view is panoramic of the ocean and the backyard setting and view off of the porch is one that would make any postcard photographer covet. Jenny made a fantastic lunch and what transpired was, as we reflected on the way home, the lost art of the long afternoon lunch at someones home. Sure, we occasionally do lunch over business in a restaurant(usually because no one wants to go back to work) but when was the last time that you had someone over for a lunch at home in the middle of the afternoon to share a meal, a glass of tea or a glass of wine and just talk with no hard stop but just until there is no more to talk about? That's what we did (although there was still more to talk about...we didn't want to totally overstay our welcome). And it was just an ideal afternoon. No other way to say it other than it was perfect. Mark Twain once said that the best way to mark the passing of a perfect summer afternoon was in a ballpark with nine innings of baseball. While, he may be more right than wrong, I would argue that good friends, good food, good drink, on a porch overlooking the ocean with a slight breeze and good conversation might just be better than extra innings. I can also imagine how nice it would be to take an afternoon from the office and go home, with colleagues, and have the same kind of lunch. If you think about the intimacy of opening up your home for this, then you also can imagine the level of conversation and potential productivity that could stem from one get together. The afternoon lunch at home is a lost occasion of a time before us. After yesterday, I intend to bring back that tradition in our household.

100 Business Days Out: Day 16 - Three Square Meals

Let me start with this statement - I am not an eater. For me, food has always been about eating to live not living to eat. In fact, I would say that I have skipped way more meals than I have eaten in my lifetime with many a work day where dinner was the only meal of the day. Breakfast was always too hard to coordinate and the morning too rushed and full to stop and eat. Lunchtime was reserved for a run or working out. I might grab a Cliff Bar or maybe a salad occasionally and eat them back at my desk. I was also not a big fan of eating meetings. If I could avoid a business dinner I would. When I did lots of recruiting I always avoided eating with an interview. One never wants to be locked into a full meal with someone who might not want to spend that much time with. All of this rambling leads me to the fact that right now, I am meeting over meals more than I have ever done or want to do. It seems that that the natural time for most people to get together is breakfast or lunch so every day I find myself with a breakfast or lunch meeting and going from place to place to do so. I am learning how to eat lightly a number of times a day, which according to all of the nutrition books is what you are supposed to do anyway. I am also learning to look forward to these meetings and enjoying the time with someone over food. A restaurant executive once told me that sharing food with someone was the second most intimate thing we do with other human beings. Since I put sleeping in the same bed with someone pretty intimate too, I would say it is the third most intimate thing, but I do agree that if you don’t take for granted the time and the experience, the lunch meeting can actually be something special.